What celebrations are you planning with your adopted children for the Memorial weekend? If you recently adopted a sibling group then they may not know what to expect, if anything on this holiday. You are creating their holiday memories and perhaps their future traditions with their future families by your choices. In areas where we have winter snow, Memorial weekend traditionally marks the opening of beaches and theme parks. We have created a family Memorial weekend tradition of going to Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio every year. Super Dad loves... more

It was the morning of Christmas Eve and I had not yet wrapped any presents, not even one. Super Dad took the initiative and began wrapping the gifts we needed for tonight’s celebration with his family. I began separating gifts into piles based on whom they were for very slowly. I am surprised that Super Dad didn’t say anything to me because for the most part I just sat there in a kind of stupor. I have been suffering from depression for the last several weeks, perhaps you could tell by the tone of by writing. I just could not get into the holiday spirit. I went... more

Enough of the Christmas badgering, I can’t take much more. My eight year old is completely obsessed with Christmas gifts this year. The thought of gifts hiding in the closet is apparently driving him nuts. He must have asked me 50 times today, what he was getting for Christmas. What was I going to put in his stocking?

When he received his allowance today, he tried bribing me. Was there a gift he could buy from me for eight dollars? No, well could he make a down payment on a gift and get it today. Was there another job he could do to earn the full purchase price... more

There was a lot of excitement this morning when the children awoke. The excitement was spreading through the house for several reasons. The obvious reason was that it was Thanksgiving morning. Thoughts of turkey and desserts danced through their heads. There was no school today and they were thrilled about that. They get so excited about just lying around, watching cartoons, and playing video games. When they looked out the windows this morning they found the first snow of the season laying on the grass. Brilliant white crystals shimmered in the morning sunlight.

Usually,... more

Have you ever felt pressured to celebrate a holiday? What happens when you adopt older children who have already celebrated holidays? Obviously, they are already aware that other families celebrate on that day. When the holiday is nearing, the children new to your family may begin to get excited in anticipation. That is when you burst their bubble and tell them that, “Our family doesn’t celebrate that holiday.” Then you try to explain why your family doesn’t celebrate that holiday. Will your newly adopted children be angry, or feel resentment towards you?

If... more

This is a day later than I wanted it to be, but yesterday I could not get the blogsite to work for me no matter how many times I tried to send this.

Most of the time on Mother's day I tend to gag on the sugary sweet songs that the kids in our church sing for the mothers present. Why? Well, when I hear words such as:

Mother dear I love you so, your happy smiling face Is such a joy to look at, it makes home a lovely place.

I think of all the times I've hollered at my kids or had a face that surely was not a joy to look at, and the the guilt with a capital G rears its ugly head.

Move on to verse two and the saccharine... more

I love Easter. I think I love it even more than Christmas, because Easter gives me a message of hope like no other. Had there been no Easter, the birth of Christ and Christmas would not have had much meaning.

Coming from a Communist country, Caleb has not had any experience with Easter until this year. I have struggled over the past two weeks, trying to decide if we would introduce the concept of the Easter bunny to him or not. I've never been wild about the fictional characters such as Santa... more

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I figured I would take advantage of the Chinese tradition of cleaning and sweeping out the bad in order to bring in the new year, so was able to get the kids to work around the house cleaning up for Sunday.

The typical tradition is to stay up until midnight on the eve of the new year and make jiaozi or Chinese dumplings. Since this wasn't something I was up to doing and preferred to have the kids in bed by that time of night, we reserved our big food celebration for Sunday night after church.

I thought... more

part 1

When I was in Haiti for Micheline's adoption I saw people eating chicken feet and it made me rather nauseous at the time. Mariot, my guide, loved them and thought it was hilarious that I couldn't bear the thought of eating them. Something about those toenails or claws or talons or whatever the correct term would be...just reminds me of witches' hands on Halloween. Mariot used to tell me that Americans just didn't know what was good.

Try having... more

Gong Xi Fa Cai!...which in spite of the literal translation of a prosperous new year, I am convinced it means watch Mom get sick while Caleb chews on chicken feet. More to follow...

Even though we have celebrated Chinese New Year since Ben joined our family from China, this year was the first for Caleb to celebrate Chinese New Year in the United States. I was afraid of disappointing him since he is used to quite the celebrations in China. Alyssa and Taylor were asking what it must be like for him to not have the big holiday like... more